One way to get creative with betting any given matchup is betting on a team to win individual quarters throughout.

Whether a game is heavily favored in one direction or you’re looking to stay amused amidst a mundane contest, waging on quarters can provide quick, compelling betting experiences.

Rather than crafting a parlay, it’s a straight-forward, team-oriented bet with more intriguing odds for football and basketball betting (innings, periods and halves markets for other sports).

Because the team needs to actually win all four quarters individually — not just be winning at the end of each quarter — you can get some good longshot prices.

I like to perceive it this way: one game of standard regulation is a series of four mini-game moneyline bets. You can bet one or all four of them at most sportsbooks.

To Win Each Quarter Bet, Explained

Let’s look at an example with the Dec. 1 Thursday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots. The Bills are priced at -235 while the Patriots +192 for a straight up moneyline bet at Caesars Sportsbook.

Waging on either team to win all four quarters is a longshot no matter the matchup, since the team actually needs to win all four quarters, not just “be winning” after all four quarters.

Since the Bills are favorited, their line to win all four quarters is set at a lower +1600 than New England’s +3500.

So, a bettor who takes these odds with $100 at stake would win $1,600 if they bet on Buffalo and $3,500 if they went with New England.

And if the Bills win the first quarter 7-3, second quarter 10-7, third quarter 3-0 and fourth quarter 7-3, you’ll cash the bet.

Beyond betting on a team to win all four quarters, sportsbooks offer the option of betting on a team to win one, two, three or zero quarters, too. The odds for each would vary, but a team to win zero quarters bet is almost just as rare as a team winning all of them.

In the Bills-Patriots example, Caesars prices New England at +460 to win no quarters because it’s unlikely Belichek would allow any team to trample his defense for four straight quarters — or any NFL team for that matter.

Of course Buffalo to win zero quarters is priced at a significantly higher +1300, which is interesting because those odds are better than the Bills to win four. So it’s more likely the favorite would get beaten in each quarter than score more than the underdog.

How NBA “Winning at The End of Every Quarter Bets” Work

There are a bevy of ways to wage on individual quarters in basketball betting. Like football, it offers markets to bet the winner, margin, total and spread of an individual quarter.

Basketball brings additional neat markets to quarter betting, too. On FanDuel, there’s the “race to 10 or 15 points” and the unique “winner at the end of every quarter” bet.

This means that the winner must lead the game at the buzzer of every quarter. If neither team does, the winning bet is “any other result”.

So you can bet on three options: the home or away to lead through every quarter and “any other result.”

Let’s look at the Nov. 30 matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns as an example.

FanDuel has Suns priced at -215 and the Chicago Bulls at +180 moneyline odds pre tip-off.

The “winning at the end of every quarter” odds are intriguingly set at +170 for Phoenix and +640 for Chicago to lead through the entirety of regulation. But, the “any other result” is -130 because it’s much more likely for the lead to change at any given point.

The Suns took both meetings from the Bulls in the 2021-22 season, winning 127-124 and 129-102. They led through all eight quarters. Given that knowledge, the disparity in roster talent and the straight-up odds, one could feel confidence in riding the Suns to lead through the entire game.

So if you were to like a favorite enough, this market offers solid value to betting them and offers a unique lens to rooting a side.

Betting on Individual Quarters

The best thing about betting specific quarters is that no matter what the game type is (blowout, barn burner, nail biter or just plain dull), choosing a team to win a quarter is always closer to a toss-up because of the smaller sample.

Using the Bills-Patriots example, the Bills are priced at minus for all four quarters. Since it’s a mini moneyline bet, that’s no surprise and unless the live odds change, it wouldn’t be a sensible bet.

The underdog has solid odds to win at least one quarter no matter what the scale imbalance is. The Patriots are priced at +170, +155, +165 and +145 for each of the four quarters, respectively.

The odds descend from the first to second quarters of each half because it’s more likely for the favorite to jump out to an early lead in a half. The odds are highest in the fourth because it’s assumed — if things go accordingly — that the Bills will have an established lead in the fourth. Therefore, the Patriots will get their best shot to win a less meaningful segment of the game.

So, there’s always good value on betting an underdog to win a quarter.

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